Trim Size: 6in x 9in  Mehta572763 c01.tex V1-04/03/2020 11:45pm Page 4 4 WhyCustomerSuccessBecameStandard Making and Selling Aren’t the Only Things That Matter Anymore, Dad WhenIwas8yearsold,Ivividlyremembera“takeyourchildtoworkday” with my entrepreneur dad. The thing I recall best from that event is him saying, “Nick, there are just two jobs that matter in business: the jobs of the people who make the stuff you sell and the jobs of the people who sell the stuff you make; everything else is overhead.” As oversimplified as that may sound, my dad was accurately describing the business model of pretty much every major corporation from 1900 to 2000.Makingstuffandsellingstuffdrovetheglobaleconomy.Thesalewasa one-time activity, and anything “post-sale” was a cost to the company (cus- tomer service centers, repair people dealing with broken machines, fleets of company vehicles, etc.). My dad’s advice fared well for me in my early career as a leader in enterprise software. Thenin2008,duringthedepthofthefinancialcrisis,Iwashiredtorun a company where we sold our software “as a service” (SaaS). I was finally  in the cloud! I remember my first day meeting the employees and recalling  my dad’s advice. I wanted to immediately talk to the leaders of Sales and Engineering, the people who “sold stuff” and “made stuff.” I also met Steve, the person responsible for making sure our existing customers were successful. I thought to myself at the time, “Great. Steve’s got that covered so I don’t have to worry about it.” ButwhatIlearnedoverthefouryearsofrunningthatcompanywasthat the SaaS business model had fundamentally shifted power to our customers. They weren’t “buying” stuff anymore, they were renting it. This changed thewayIneededtooperateasaCEO.Makingandsellingstillmatteredalot. But our customers now had the “power of the purse.” If they weren’t satis- fied, they could leave us at any time. As the CEO of this customer-powered company, I ended up spending way more time with Steve than I did with his counterparts in Sales and Engineering. And that shift that I observed toward customer-centricity is why I was excited to join Gainsight and help launch the company in 2013, with our missionbeingtoenablebusinessestoembraceCustomerSuccessasthelead- ing strategic differentiator of the next phase of the economy. And if you follow me online, you know I am fired up about the Customer Success movement!